


Playing the Lure

by Just_Another_Day



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Drama, Letters, M/M, Manipulation, Scheming, accidentally falling in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-12 09:24:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20562014
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Day/pseuds/Just_Another_Day
Summary: Laurent goes along with the Regent's plan at first, since the intended outcome suits him as well. Things have changed significantly since then.





	Playing the Lure

**Author's Note:**

> AU where instead of the war, the same 'illness' (read: poison) that took Hennike was also what wiped out Aleron and Auguste.
> 
> Written for the 'Lured into a Trap' square of Bad Things Happen Bingo, and the 'Love Letters' square of Fluff Bingo (even though I wouldn't say this ended up super fluffy, whoops).

It had been several months now since Damianos of Akielos and his retinue had visited the palace at Arles in an effort to open up negotiations for peace between their countries (which Akielos was only interested in doing now that Vere was finally considered stable enough to once more stand strong against Akielos's military might, Laurent noted).

And still, despite the time that had passed since then, it was clear that Damen remained completely infatuated.

He was a fool for making it so obvious, Laurent thought bitterly.

In fairness, Damen – who had immediately and publicly insisted that Laurent should refer to him by his small name, with all its implicit familiarity, so his interest had already been clear from the outset – never actually came right out and pronounced himself to be in love. Perhaps that would have been just a little too straight-forward even for his standards. But it was obvious in the lilting phrasing of the stream of letters Damen had started sending from Ios to Arles from the moment his feet had touched back down on Akielon soil. To Laurent, they read almost like poetry; a reminder of the soft things Damen had whispered in his ear when Laurent had finally let him close enough. Worse, in those letters Damen had started speaking freely and unwaveringly of a possible future between them. Of cross-country horse rides, and teaching Laurent how to wrestle (a transparent ploy to get Laurent naked if ever he had heard one), and stolen weeks spent finding out whether Laurent's skin would freckle at an offshoot palace by the Akielon sea.

It was very clear that Damen hadn't written their time off as just another one of his hundreds, or perhaps even thousands, of momentary flings. It hadn't just faded into memory. If anything, the ongoing exchange of missives between them only seemed to make Damen surer of his feelings than ever.

Laurent considered not writing back. Briefly. He continued to do so anyway.

Uncle looked knowing and smug every time a new letter arrived. Though Uncle hadn't insisted on seeing the contents of the letters (as if Laurent didn't know better than to assume that the unbroken seals when they were placed in his hands were any assurance of the privacy of them where the Regent and his 'resources' were concerned), the frequency of the letters alone would have been enough to speak to Damen's eagerness. They were so regular that each new letter had to have been sent on the next outgoing merchant ship even before the previous one had had time to arrive, let alone receive a reply.

It was unbearably sweet. Laurent wished Damen would stop it.

"So it seems Prince Damianos is firmly on the hook despite your efforts to ensure he would lose interest," Uncle commented after Laurent had already received more than two dozen messages.

"I can't think what you could mean," Laurent said. "I encouraged his interest. Just as you asked me to."

"Oh? You don't think I noticed how you acted like a spiteful little wretch towards him every time you thought you were unobserved?"

A chill shot through Laurent. He _had_ thought that, since Uncle hadn't remarked upon it at the time, or at all up until now. But of course it hadn't evaded Uncle's notice. Not when every servant was a potential spy willing to pass along information about how Laurent had traded acting like a lure in for instead purposely showcasing his worst traits in an effort to drive Damen away.

That had been at around the same time as Laurent had caught himself drawing unfortunate mental parallels between the way Damen spoke and acted and Laurent's treasured memories of Auguste. It had been too late for that by then, though. Damen had fallen for Laurent despite his harshness. Or perhaps even partly because of it, though Laurent sincerely doubted _that_ could be true.

"I'm afraid Akielos brings out the worst in me. I had trouble containing it," Laurent said flippantly, shrugging it off. "Though you'll notice I learned to reign it in well enough by the end, so of course there'll be nothing for you to be concerned about from now on."

"Hmm." Uncle sounded highly disbelieving. "Either way, he's luckily either foolish or unobservant enough that he overlooked it and has fallen into the trap all the same. You'll have your path into the heart of Ios soon enough."

"Yes," Laurent agreed.

Theomedes would have had to extend a return invitation to them eventually for the sake of political appearances. But it most likely would have been years from now if left to Theomedes's choice alone. Instead, now his son would be pressuring him to send an invitation. And Damen would also be insisting that they should treat Laurent with equanimity rather than suspicion once he did arrive in their midst.

It was so easy. _Too_ easy, really.

Or, at least, too easy for Uncle. Laurent, unfortunately, couldn't claim the same anymore.

Uncle noted, "You don't sound very pleased that things are going as we'd hoped."

"Should the idea of spending weeks surrounded by barbarians really please me?"

"Now, now," Uncle said, amused. "It will only be weeks if you aren't efficient about it. It should be simple enough, considering they'll be underestimating you. Just do it in the first day or so and you'll be smuggled out of there and on a ship heading back to Vere before you even know it."

Would he really be? Laurent had to admit to having his doubts about that. With less than two years now until Laurent was set to take his throne, it certainly would tie up most of Uncle's loose ends if he were to just leave Laurent to the not-so-tender mercies of the Akielons. It would be so easy to claim that Laurent had murdered the three men of the Akielon royal family of his own accord, without the knowledge of his country or his regent. And it was doubtful the Akielons would even be in a position to retaliate if they did realise the truth of the matter. It could be years before Akielos recovered from the loss. It had been for Vere, and that was even without the threat of civil war as a result of having no direct heir that Akielos would face.

But as neat as it all seemed, would Uncle just send Laurent to his certain death like that? After everything?

It was telling that Laurent didn't know.

Which of them had actually been the ultimate target of Uncle's manipulations, Laurent was left to wonder. Because what choice did Laurent have at this stage? Laurent could hardly just refuse to go to the Akielon capital once the opportunity was in front of him without completely losing whatever small measure of respect the Council and the court still had for him. Uncle would make sure of that. Nor could he fail to make the attempt once he was in Akielos and still expect a welcome return back to Vere after that. Laurent could imagine how easy it would be for Uncle to arrange for the Akielons to learn of Laurent's purpose in coming before he could depart. Even if he didn't follow through on the scheme, Laurent didn't doubt Theomedes would want him executed for his original intent all the same. And even if Damen was in a position to protect him from his father's wishes, would Damen even be willing enough to forgive Laurent to _want_ to?

They had only really spent a few weeks in each other's company. A few weeks, and one night, in which they'd both been more honest with each other than they perhaps should have. Could that combined with a string of letters be enough to forgive a man for his perceived wrongs, and to fall enough in love with him to be intent on protecting him from your own family?

(It could, Laurent knew.)

Something of the wavering in Laurent's purpose must have shown, or else Uncle just knew him well enough to accurately guess at his thoughts.

"They deserve it. They took advantage of our grief to steal our land from us," Uncle reminded him. "They knew they couldn't oppose us at our strength, so like cowards they waited until illness did their work for them. They've brought this on themselves."

They had. And Laurent still wished Theomedes all the ill in the world for using the deaths of his brother and his parents to take Delfeur, and then for making Vere fight and sacrifice so many of their men over the course of _years_ just to hold the new border against further opportunistic encroachment. That element of his hatred hadn't changed. Laurent really would still enjoy seeing the King of Akielos's face white and lifeless, like the last view of Auguste's face that had been ingrained in Laurent's mind before the physician had quickly covered him from Laurent's view. Laurent had just initially thought he would feel the same about the man's son, who'd done nothing to argue against his father while he'd plotted invasion. Laurent had thought it would be satisfying to use Damianos to get close to his father and bastard brother, and then to sink the knife into each of them in turn when the moment was ripe.

That had been how Uncle had sold his plan to Laurent when he'd instructed Laurent to seduce the Crown Prince of Akielos and gain his trust. For all that it had been proposed by the Regent, which Laurent had long since learned was always something to be wary of, it had still seemed like a reasonable goal at the time, even if the means were distasteful. Better to eliminate the distant enemy who were already known for leaping at the chance to take advantage of any weakness inside Vere's borders before bringing things to a head with the threat closer to home.

But now Laurent thought of the way the early morning sun had caught Damen's open smile in those last hours before he'd departed Arles, as he'd pressed Laurent back into the mattress, clearly delighted at Laurent being so desperate to share one last time together even after they'd already thoroughly satisfied each other just hours before.

Laurent imagined seeing that smile slacken, because of him.

There was still time to come up with a plan of his own, Laurent reasoned. The invitation to Ios, inevitable though it might be, hadn't come yet. Laurent could figure out a way to make this work the way _he_ needed it to.

Uncle almost always got his way, it was true. Even when it was at Laurent's expense (or especially then).

But maybe not this time.


End file.
